Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers: Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology) PDF
Preview Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers: Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England (Changing Paradigms in Historical and Systematic Theology)
CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY GeneralEditors SARAH COAKLEY RICHARD CROSS CHANGING PARADIGMS IN HISTORICAL AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY GeneralEditors:SarahCoakley(Norris-HulseProfessorof Divinity,UniversityofCambridge)andRichardCross (JohnA.O’BrienProfessorofPhilosophy,University ofNotreDame) Thisseriessetsouttoreconsiderthemoderndistinctionbetween‘historical’ and‘systematic’theology.Thescholarshiprepresentedintheseriesismarked byattentiontothewayinwhichhistoriographicandtheologicalpresump- tions (‘paradigms’) necessarily inform the work of historians of Christian thought, and thus aVect their application to contemporary concerns. At certainkeyjuncturessuchparadigmsarerecast,causingare-consideration of the methods, hermeneutics, geographical boundaries, or chronological caesuraswhichhavepreviouslyguidedthetheologicalnarrative.Thebegin- ningofthetwenty-Wrstcenturymarksaperiodofsuchnotablereassessment oftheChristiandoctrinalheritage,andinvolvesaquestioningofthepara- digms that have sustained the classic ‘history-of-ideas’ textbook accounts ofthemodernera.Eachofthevolumesinthisseriesbringssuchcontem- porarymethodologicalandhistoriographicalconcernstoconsciousconsid- eration. Each tackles a period or key Wgure whose signiWcance is ripe for reconsideration, and each analyses the implicit historiography that hassustainedexistingscholarshiponthetopic.Avarietyoffreshmethodo- logical concerns are considered, without reducing the theological to other categories. The emphasis is on an awareness of the history of ‘reception’: thepossibilitiesforcontemporarytheologyareboundupwithacarefulre- writingofthehistoricalnarrative.Inthissense,‘historical’and‘systematic’ theologyarenecessarilyconjoined,yetalsocloselyconnectedtoadiscerning interdisciplinaryengagement. ThismonographseriesaccompaniestheprojectofTheOxfordHandbookof theReceptionofChristianTheology(OUP,inprogress),alsoeditedbySarah CoakleyandRichardCross. NOWAVAILABLE Calvin,Participation,andtheGift TheActivityofBelieversinUnionwithChrist J.ToddBillings FORTHCOMING TheHolySpirit LewisAyres Newman and the Alexandrian Fathers Shaping Doctrine in Nineteenth-Century England BENJAMIN JOHN KING 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #BenjaminJohnKing2009 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2008942633 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–954813–2 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 For Mum. For Dad. Deo Gratias. This page intentionally left blank Preface and Acknowledgements The British and Americans, it has been said, are predisposed to be Whigs with regard to the past. Because of their own political and economichistory,theytendtoseeallhistoryaseverchangingand,in spiteofsetbacks,growingbetter.Theonlyquestioniswhethertobea ‘fastWhig’ora‘slowWhig’. John Henry Newman, a Tory in most of his attitudes, was a ‘slow Whig’ in his view of Christian doctrine. On the face of it, Newman was no believer in progress, for things were as likely to growcorruptastodevelop;yetNewman’sfrequentfocusonchange and renewal reXects a lifetime that spanned the nineteenth century andwitnessedenormousreligious,political,andeconomicchangein Britain.Newman’sWrstbookshowedthatChristiandoctrinewasnot static but had a history: the Council of Nicaea changed what had gonebefore,insomewaysfortheworse(movingfromthedayswhen noformulawasneededtodeWnethefaith)andinotherwaysforthe better (enabling the Church to confound heretics). Then, in the middle of his life, Newman became the most famous proponent of the development of doctrine in Britain and America. Finally, towards the end of his life, in the introduction to The Via Media, hewroteoftheCatholicChurch:‘itisherspecialduty...tokeepup and to increase her various populations in this ever-dying, ever nascent world, in which to be stationary is to lose ground, and to reposeistofail’(VMi,pp. lxxx–lxxxi).Newmanwas,therefore,aslow Whig,whosaworganicgrowthasinevitable,ifnotalwaysanimprove- ment.Andateachstage—youngTractarian,middle-agedproponent ofdoctrinaldevelopment,elderlyCardinal—itwastotheAlexandrian FathersthatNewmanturnedtomakesurethatcontemporarygrowth was rooted in orthodox truth. Yet, he adapted his understanding of thoseFatherstoeachstageofhislife. ThisbookisWhiggish,too,asmightbeexpectedfromsomething researched and written in Britain and America. It recognizes four important things about Newman’s own growth and renewal: Wrst, viii PrefaceandAcknowledgements thathisthinkingabouttheFatherschanged,bothinhiswritingsand in his sermons; second, that consequently his understanding of whatwasandwas not‘orthodox’changed;third,that thesechanges unfoldedgraduallyinthreemajorstagesofhislifeandnotcataclys- mically at his conversion to Catholicism; fourth, that when writing ahistoryofdoctrine,Newmanwasboththerecipientofatraditionof patristic interpretation and also someone who changed the way the Fathers were read after him. Newman is therefore a key Wgure in thegrowthand development of patristic scholarship, particularly intheAnglophoneworld. There are so many ways in which this book would not have been possible without help on both sides of the Atlantic. The book’s greatest debt is to Sarah Coakley, one of the series editors, who has givenunceasingsupportandhelptothisresearchsinceitbegan.The other series editor, Richard Cross, has provided me with invaluable insights.MysecondgreatestdebtistotheencouragementofAndrew Louth,whomIamproudtocallmyDoktorvater.AttheBirmingham Oratory, IwouldliketothankFrancisMcGrathFMSforhishelpin the Cardinal’s Library; at Yale, I would like to thank Frank Turner bothforconversationandforhelpwiththemicroWlmversionofthe Oratoryarchive.Iowegreatthankstothosewhohavereadversions of the whole manuscript: David Brown, Nicholas Lash, and Peter Nockles, whose suggestions have changed this book for the better. Thosewhoreadparts,andaskedcrucialquestionsofwhattheyread, are John Behr, Todd Billings, Brian Daley SJ, Michael Himes, Fred Lawrence, and Mark McIntosh. Khaled Anatolios, Brigitte Hoege- mann FSO, and Ian Ker responded generously to questions. David Cunningham showed me how to begin to write a book; Charles HeXing showed me how to Wnish one; and Kathleen Coleman showed me how to cope with the proofs. Joseph Chapman and DonaldLarsenwerekenoticwiththeirtimeandthelatePollyWarren wasmy‘othersupervisor’. My constant conversation partners, without whom I could not have written a book at all, are Dominic Doyle, Philip McCosker, EdmundNewey,andMatthewTreherne.Leyla,myWance´e,isthebest PrefaceandAcknowledgements ix editorahusbandcouldwant.TomPerridge,LizzyRobottomandall atOxfordUniversityPresshavebeenkindnessitself.Thestudentsat Harvardhavebeenendlesslyencouraging;allerrorsaremyownand, as Daniel Okobi among those students particularly knows, I make many! Cambridge,Mass. FeastoftheTransWguration,2008
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